WOMENS CANCER TREATMENT CHOICES BY COHORT AND ETHNICITY

描述：拟议的定性人类学的目标 学习就是描述和考察使用的原因 80名女性接受非传统和/或生物医学癌症治疗 加利福尼亚州旧金山，临床诊断为乳腺癌。这个 研究人群将包括两个年龄段的女性(35-49岁和 60-74)代表三个民族：欧裔美国人、非洲人 美国人和华裔美国人。这项研究将调查社会和 在癌症治疗选择中发挥作用的行为因素， 关注生命阶段的比较和探索性方法 种族的影响。该研究有三个具体目标：(1) 确定区分非传统癌症治疗的因素 来自研究人群中非用户的用户；(2)探索和分析 选择特定治疗的原因(无论是生物医学 或非常规)或治疗组合(生物医学和 非常规)；以及(3)确定不同的配置 治疗组合和冲突方法的方式 和解了。 数据将通过一系列四个深度半结构化的方式收集 采访了最近被诊断出患有乳腺癌的女性。这个 将通过快速发现病例来确定潜在的举报人 北加州癌症中心的服务。告密者将被 在确诊后约两个月内进行初步访谈，并 在6个月、18个月和30个月时再进行三次。数据 将使用定性内容的技术进行分析 分析。民族志，一个社会科学的计算机软件程序， 将用于方便管理、分类、编码、分析 以文本为基础的定性数据。

DESCRIPTION: The objective of the proposed qualitative anthropological study is to describe and examine the reasons for the use of unconventional and/or biomedical cancer treatments among 80 women with clinically-diagnosed breast cancer in San Francisco, California. The study population will consist of two age cohorts of women (35-49 and 60-74) representing three ethnic groups: European American, African American, and Chinese American. This study will investigate social and behavioral factors that play a role in cancer treatment choices, with a focus on life-stage comparisons and an exploratory approach to the influence of ethnicity. The study has three specific aims: (1) to determine the factors that distinguish unconventional cancer treatment users from non-users in the study population; (2) to explore and analyze the reasons for the selection of specific treatments (either biomedical or unconventional) or combinations of treatments (both biomedical and unconventional); and (3) to determine the different configurations of treatment combinations and the manner in which conflicting methods are reconciled. Data will be collected through a series of four in depth semistructured interviews with women recently diagnosed with breast cancer. The potential informants will be identified through a rapid case-finding service of the Northern California Cancer Center. Informants will be interviewed initially within approximately two months of diagnosis and three more times at 6 months, 18 months, and 30 months. The data analysis will be undertaken using techniques of qualitative content analysis. The Ethnograph, a social science computer software program, will be used to facilitate the management, sorting, coding, analysis of the text-based qualitative data.